Tuesday, 17 May 2011

... in the first 6 months of 2000 I was experiencing a fair number of days taking doses of LSD ... and that also became the last period in my life so far that I ever used it too ... Albert Hofmann I think expressed the view that "LSD My Problem Child" should be experienced sparingly and thoughtfully, not too casually ...

... one of those very first few Lysergic inspired days of 2000 were filmed as my group video project for Westminster Uni ...

Thursday, 12 May 2011

It's my 51st birthday today. I am now older than my dad. He was a few months short of his 51st when he died back in 1970. (I'm also way older than my older brother, he was only 32 when he od'd on heroin in 1985).

It has been an interesting personal year. Good and bad, but ultimately pretty good. Most of the bad stuff contributed to an overall interesting learning experience.

In May last year I decided to technically and symbolically register with the tax office as a self employed artist and in September 2010 I was shortlisted for Guggenheim and Google's PLAY with my 999 DAYS video ... ( "Introducing the Shortlist" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWVCdIweVOo )

I've continued with most of my local unwaged commitments and added a few more; though it's a shame I fell out with the Tree Musketeers. Also since last summer I've had a small hourly wage distributing the Hackney Citizen at the start of each month; and inside the paper my fumetti COMMONPLACE just had its 2nd anniversary.

I had the first time experience last year of meeting a friend face2face who I first met and got to know on Facebook. I hadn't previously met anyone from the internet before. And very soon we are going to experience living together. From Facebook to living together, there's a future movie in there I'm certain :)

There has been some family crap. My stepdad died at xmas. I spontaneously visited him about a month before he died and I felt we made a peace. We hadn't seen or communicated for nearly 6 years since my mum died. And as if it wasn't bad enough that my mum forgot to sign her will when she died, it also looks like my stepdad gave the flat to my (half) sister before he died .... when he met my mum in 1971 my mum owned a house, he owned just a suitcase. Also my sister did not give me the opportunity to say goodbye to him when it was known he was dying. Neither did she inform me that he had died, nor when his funeral took place. The first I knew of his death was an email from my aunt's neighbours saying "sorry" and assuming I knew.

There is a story to add later about my sister, I paid a surprise early morning visit to her recently, the 1st time we'd seen each other since mum died back in 2005. And there's a story to add about my aunt and her neighbours too.

Meanwhile, the last few months of my 50th year had a potential threat to my tenancy humming away in the background. I thwarted that potential threat at the last minute, but it was one of those negative experiences that was interesting; it was interesting because it made me think about the possibility and consequences of losing this flat (there are pluses and minuses to an enforced move out), but it was also interesting because of the reaction from some friends which I will write about in more detail later.

I also carried a heavy unshared secret for some months recently. And that was an interesting experience also. Generally I'm a sharer (if not an oversharer :), but partly because of the experience I had with some friend's bizarre reactions to my potential homelessness I decided not to share this other deeper information. And again it was a learning experience ultimately and I've come through it on my own etc :) I'll write and talk about it eventually.

What else is there? Some great new friends, both face2face and virtual.